Local
Iya Dammons on the need to fight Trump’s anti-trans attacks
Head of Safe Haven insists ‘we will not be erased’
This year’s Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31 comes amid numerous attacks on the community from President Trump and his congressional allies advancing sports bans, restricting affirming healthcare, and gutting federal funding of nonprofits that provide life-saving resources for the trans community.
One such organization operating in Baltimore and D.C. is Safe Haven, which runs shelters in both cities for trans people experiencing homelessness along with a variety of other services for the broader LGBTQ community, including HIV prevention.
Iya Dammons, who serves as executive director of both Safe Haven groups and operates the shelters, spoke to the Blade about the challenges of doing this work in the current political environment.
Dammons said federal funding for Safe Haven Baltimore and D.C. has been frozen by the Trump administration as part of its sweeping policy of opposing government support for transgender-related programs. But she said the mayor’s offices in Baltimore and D.C., including D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, have provided local funding to make up for the loss of federal funds.
“Things are looking dire, but we have to continue our services,” she said. “So, we’re continuing to do the services in Washington, D.C. In Baltimore City we’re also being told that at the end of the day we can keep doing services and the city of Baltimore stands with us,” she said by providing financial support.
In addition to providing transitional housing for transgender people and others in the LGBTQ community experiencing homelessness, under Dammons’s leadership, Safe Haven provides a wide range of supportive services for LGBTQ people in need, with a special outreach to Black trans women “navigating survival mode” living, according to its website.
“Through compassionate harm reduction and upward mobility services, advocacy support, and community engagement, we foster a respectful, non-judgmental environment that empowers individuals,” a website statement says. “Our programs encompass community outreach, a drop-in center providing HIV testing, harm reduction, PrEP, medical linkage, case management, and assistance in accessing housing services,” it says.
Dammons says she and her associates at Safe Haven are responding to the hostile environment brought about by the Trump administration, among other things, by promoting a theme of “We Will Not Be Erased,” which will be highlighted in a Baltimore street mural.
As a follow-up to another street mural initiated by Dammons on Charles Street in Baltimore in July 2020 called “Black Trans Lives Matter,” the new “We Will Not Be Erased” mural is scheduled to be painted on a two-block section of Charles Street on March 29.
“So, this year, because of what is happening with the Trump administration, that he is trying to erase our population, this is going to say we won’t be erased,” Dammons told the Blade. “And it’s going to reflect our Black Trans Lives Matter mural,” she said.
Dammons said she is disappointed by Mayor Bowser’s seeming acquiescence to the Trump administration’s demand that she remove the D.C. Black Lives Matter street mural located on 16th Street, N.W. opposite the White House that Bowser had installed during Trump’s first term as president.
“She was likely to lose funding, so I understand,” Dammons said, referring to threats by Trump and Republican members of Congress to cut millions of dollars from the D.C. budget if the mayor did not remove the Black Lives Matter mural.
But Dammons said she does not think Bowser has spoken out forcefully enough about Trump’s actions toward the trans community.
Dammons, who founded Safe Haven Baltimore, which is also known as Safe Haven Maryland, in 2018, is credited with playing the lead role in its growth with a current budget of $3.8 million. She founded Safe Haven D.C. in 2023 at the time the trans supportive D.C. LGBTQ community services center Casa Ruby shut down. The D.C. Safe Haven is located at 331 H St., N.E.
In recognition of her work and contribution to the community, the Baltimore mayor and City Council in June of 2024 named a Baltimore street where the Safe Haven offices are located as Iya Dammons Way in her honor.
Dammons said she was highly honored by the street name designation and has pointed out that with the purchase of a second building to house its offices and services scheduled to open in Baltimore in June, Safe Haven has emerged as one of the nation’s largest trans-led LGBTQ nonprofit service organizations.
“It may be the largest trans-led organization by a Black trans woman of color,” she said. “It’s the largest one on the East Coast led by a Black trans woman of color.”
Regarding Trump and the anti-transgender actions by his administration, Dammons said that as a Black trans woman, “Everything that they have removed from my clients and the people I serve, he has removed from me.”
“And we have no other choice at the end of the day than to stand up and fight back and know that we won’t be erased,” she said. “There is no other choice than to stand up and fight back because, for them, this is a lifestyle. But to us, this is us. So, it’s a whole different ballgame when you look at the people we serve.”
Trans Day of Visibility events
• Trans Day of Vision picnic and rally, March 30, 1-5 p.m., Malcolm X Park. For more information, visit the DC Center’s website.
• Trans Day of Visibility rally and reception in Montgomery County, March 31, 4-7 p.m., 4805 Edgemoor Lane, Bethesda, Md. RSVP at liveinyourtruth.org.
• ‘Building Power and Solidarity Across Generations’ webinar featuring trans leaders, March 31, 7 p.m. EST, RSVP via GLAAD’s website.
• Rally featuring members of Congress, March 31, 4 p.m., National Mall between 3rd Street and 4th Street, D.C.
Virginia
DOJ seeks to join lawsuit against Loudoun County over trans student in locker room
Three male high school students suspended after complaining about classmate
The Justice Department has asked to join a federal lawsuit against Loudoun County Public Schools over the way it handled the case of three male high school students who complained about a transgender student in a boys’ locker room.
The Washington Blade earlier this year reported Loudoun County public schools suspended the three boys and launched a Title IX investigation into whether they sexually harassed the student after they said they felt uncomfortable with their classmate in the locker room at Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn.
The parents of two of the boys filed a lawsuit against Loudoun County public schools in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria. The Richmond-based Founding Freedoms Law Center and America First Legal, which White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller co-founded, represent them.
The Justice Department in a Dec. 8 press release announced that “it filed legal action against the Loudoun County (Va.) School Board (Loudoun County) for its denial of equal protection based on religion.”
“The suit alleges that Loudoun County applied Policy 8040, which requires students and faculty to accept and promote gender ideology, to two Christian, male students in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” reads the press release.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in the press release said “students do not shed their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate.”
“Loudoun County’s decision to advance and promote gender ideology tramples on the rights of religious students who cannot embrace ideas that deny biological reality,” said Dhillon.
Outgoing Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and outgoing Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares in May announced an investigation into the case.
The Virginia Department of Education in 2023 announced the new guidelines for trans and nonbinary students for which Youngkin asked. Equality Virginia and other advocacy groups claim they, among other things, forcibly out trans and nonbinary students.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights in February launched an investigation into whether Loudoun County and four other Northern Virginia school districts’ policies in support of trans and nonbinary students violate Title IX and President Donald Trump’s executive order that prohibits federally funded educational institutions from promoting “gender ideology.”
District of Columbia
Capital Pride announces change in date for 2026 D.C. Pride parade and festival
Events related to U.S. 250th anniversary and Trump birthday cited as reasons for change
The Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C. based group that organizes the city’s annual LGBTQ Pride events, has announced it is changing the dates for the 2026 Capital Pride Parade and Festival from the second weekend in June to the third weekend.
“For over a decade, Capital Pride has taken place during the second weekend in June, but in 2026, we are shifting our dates in response to the city’s capacity due to major events and preparations for the 250th anniversary of the United States,” according to a Dec. 9 statement released by Capital Pride Alliance.
The statement says the parade will take place on Saturday, June 20, 2026, with the festival and related concert taking place on June 21.
“This change ensures our community can gather safely and without unnecessary barriers,” the statement says. “By moving the celebration, we are protecting our space and preserving Pride as a powerful act of visibility, solidarity, and resistance,” it says.
Ryan Bos, the Capital Pride Alliance CEO and President, told the Washington Blade the change in dates came after the group conferred with D.C. government officials regarding plans for a number of events in the city on the second weekend in June. Among them, he noted, is a planned White House celebration of President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday and other events related to the U.S. 250th anniversary, which are expected to take place from early June through Independence Day on July 4.
The White House has announced plans for a large June 14, 2026 celebration on the White House south lawn of Trump’s 80th birthday that will include a large-scale Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event involving boxing and wrestling competition.
Bos said the Capital Pride Parade will take place along the same route it has in the past number of years, starting at 14th and T Streets, N.W. and traveling along 14th Street to Pennsylvania Ave., where it will end. He said the festival set for the following day will also take place at its usual location on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., between 2nd Street near the U.S. Capitol, to around 7th Street, N.W.
“Our Pride events thrive because of the passion and support of the community,” Capital Pride Board Chair Anna Jinkerson said in the statement. “In 2026, your involvement is more important than ever,” she said.
District of Columbia
Three women elected leaders of Capital Pride Alliance board
Restructured body includes chair rather than president as top leader
The Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C.-based group that organizes the city’s annual LGBTQ Pride events, announced it has restructured its board of directors and elected for the first time three women to serve as leaders of the board’s Executive Committee.
“Congratulations to our newly elected Executive Officers, making history as Capital Pride Alliance’s first all-women Board leadership,” the group said in a statement.
“As we head into 2026 with a bold new leadership structure, we’re proud to welcome Anna Jinkerson as Board Chair, Kim Baker as Board Treasurer, and Taylor Lianne Chandler as Board Secretary,” the statement says.
In a separate statement released on Nov. 20, Capital Pride Alliance says the restructured Board now includes the top leadership posts of Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary, replacing the previous structure of President and Vice President as the top board leaders.
It says an additional update to the leadership structure includes a change in title for longtime Capital Pride official Ryan Bos from executive director to chief executive officer and president.
According to the statement, June Crenshaw, who served as acting deputy director during the time the group organized WorldPride 2025 in D.C., will now continue in that role as permanent deputy director.
The statement provides background information on the three newly elected women Board leaders.
• Anna Jinkerson (chair), who joined the Capital Pride Alliance board in 2022, previously served as the group’s vice president for operations and acting president. “A seasoned non-profit executive, she currently serves as Assistant to the President and CEO and Chief of Staff at Living Cities, a national member collaborative of leading philanthropic foundations and financial institutions committed to closing income and wealth gaps in the United States and building an economy that works for everyone.”
• Kim Baker (treasurer) is a “biracial Filipino American and queer leader,” a “retired, disabled U.S. Army veteran with more than 20 years of service and extensive experience in finance, security, and risk management.” She has served on the Capital Pride Board since 2018, “bringing a proven track record of steady, principled leadership and unwavering dedication to the LGBTQ+ community.”
• Taylor Lianne Chandler (Secretary) is a former sign language interpreter and crisis management consultant. She “takes office as the first intersex and trans-identifying member of the Executive Committee.” She joined the Capital Pride Board in 2019 and previously served as executive producer from 2016 to 2018.
Bos told the Washington Blade in a Dec. 2 interview that the Capital Pride board currently has 12 members, and is in the process of interviewing additional potential board members.
“In January we will be announcing in another likely press release the full board,” Bos said. “We are finishing the interview process of new board members this month,” he said. “And they will take office to join the board in January.”
Bos said the organization’s rules set a cap of 25 total board members, but the board, which elects its members, has not yet decided how many additional members it will select and a full 25-member board is not required.
The Nov. 20 Capital Pride statement says the new board executive members will succeed the organization’s previous leadership team, which included Ashley Smith, who served as president for eight years before he resigned earlier this year; Anthony Musa, who served for seven years as vice president of board engagement; Natalie Thompson, who served eight years on the executive committee; and Vince Micone, who served for eight years as vice president of operations.
“I am grateful for the leadership, dedication, and commitment shown by our former executive officers — Ashley, Natalie, Anthony, and Vince — who have been instrumental in CPA’s growth and the exceptional success of WorldPride 2025,” Bos said in the statement.
“I look forward to collaborating with Anna in her new role, as well as Kim and Taylor in theirs, as we take on the important work ahead, prepare for Capital Pride 2026, and expand our platform and voice through Pride365,” Bos said.
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